Pediatric Infectious Diseases Fellowship

Our program, your future

Welcome to the Corewell Health Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital/Michigan State University Pediatric Infectious Diseases Fellowship! Our fellowship primarily rotates at Corewell Health Helen DeVos Children's Hospital (part of Corewell Health Grand Rapids Hospitals). It is the only free-standing children’s hospital in West Michigan and has been ranked as a top hospital by U.S. News & World Report for 12 years. Our fellowship’s remaining rotations occur at Corewell Health Butterworth Hospital (part of Corewell Health Grand Rapids Hospitals), a major tertiary and quaternary referral center for West Michigan and beyond and connected to Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital.

The pediatric infectious diseases department cares for a wide range of patients and infectious pathologies, including infections of the blood, bone, joints, lungs, and gastrointestinal tract. The department also treats international adoptees, refugees, and patients living with HIV. We sponsor an antimicrobial stewardship program in both the inpatient and outpatient settings which helps ensure the best and most appropriate use of antibiotics for all patients within our hospital system.

Our program is an ACGME-accredited fellowship, three years in duration, and offers two fellowship training positions each year. We are excited to train fellows to become leaders in the specialty of pediatric infectious diseases who provide excellent clinical care and contribute to high-quality research, academics, public health, and industry.

Welcome to the Corewell Health Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital/Michigan State University Pediatric Infectious Diseases Fellowship! Our fellowship primarily rotates at Corewell Health Helen DeVos Children's Hospital (part of Corewell Health Grand Rapids Hospitals). It is the only free-standing children’s hospital in West Michigan and has been ranked as a top hospital by U.S. News & World Report for 12 years. Our fellowship’s remaining rotations occur at Corewell Health Butterworth Hospital (part of Corewell Health Grand Rapids Hospitals), a major tertiary and quaternary referral center for West Michigan and beyond and connected to Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital.

The pediatric infectious diseases department cares for a wide range of patients and infectious pathologies, including infections of the blood, bone, joints, lungs, and gastrointestinal tract. The department also treats international adoptees, refugees, and patients living with HIV. We sponsor an antimicrobial stewardship program in both the inpatient and outpatient settings which helps ensure the best and most appropriate use of antibiotics for all patients within our hospital system.

Our program is an ACGME-accredited fellowship, three years in duration, and offers two fellowship training positions each year. We are excited to train fellows to become leaders in the specialty of pediatric infectious diseases who provide excellent clinical care and contribute to high-quality research, academics, public health, and industry.

Curriculum

Our curriculum consists of clinical rotations, fellows’ clinics, didactic lecture series, case conferences, and journal clubs.

Clinical rotations

All pediatric rotations occur at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital. Adult rotations occur at Butterworth Hospital, our adult counterpart located on the same campus in downtown Grand Rapids.

Rotations:

Inpatient pediatric infectious diseases
Microbiology
HIV
Antimicrobial Stewardship
Infection Prevention
Research
Electives: outpatient pediatric infectious diseases, pediatric immunology, adult transplant infectious disease, adult inpatient infectious disease

Clinic schedule

During the three years of training, each fellow will have approximately one-half day of clinic per week when not on an inpatient rotation. No outpatient clinic is required while on the inpatient service. During the first year, fellows see general infectious disease patients and begin seeing travel consult patients. In the second year, fellows are added to the HIV clinic, which is staffed by HIV specialists. Efforts are made to have fellows follow up on patients they consulted on in the hospital. They also have their own small panel of HIV patients that they follow throughout training.

Didactics

Our didactic calendar includes monthly general infectious disease as well as immunology/HIV lectures. In addition, we have a monthly Infectious Diseases Grand Rounds alongside our adult infectious disease colleagues and adult and pediatric infectious disease pharmacists, which is a combination of case conferences and journal clubs. We do a monthly virtual case conference with pediatric infectious diseases colleagues across the state. Fellows participate in presenting with residents at monthly journal clubs and weekly case conferences with the attendings. Finally, there are monthly micro rounds facilitated by both adult and pediatric infectious disease fellows. Pediatric Grand Rounds for Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital is every Tuesday morning and open to all fellows.

Several individuals seated at a restaurant table, sharing a meal and interacting with one another in a lively atmosphere.

Each fellow is required to complete a research project of their interest during training. A written document of their scholarly work (whether a summary or a published manuscript) is required to be submitted to the ABP in order to be eligible to sit for the subspecialty certification exam. Corewell Health in West Michigan offers a formal research training curriculum to be completed during the first year of fellowship as each fellow begins their projects. In addition, every fellow receives excellent support and guidance from the Office of Research on matters such as IRB protocols, data processing, data interpretation, literature review, and more. Our division is active in clinical research, which includes quality improvement work and original projects. Fellows have the option to work alongside faculty from any Corewell Health in West Michigan specialty. In addition, if a basic science project is desired, we have contacts at Van Andel Research Institute, Grand Valley State University or Michigan State University in Grand Rapids and Lansing.

Recent published topics from our faculty include:

Applications for the pediatric infectious diseases fellowship program are only accepted through the ERAS system. Please refer to their timeline for application windows.

Combined Adult/Peds Infectious Disease

In collaboration with the Corewell Health Infectious Disease fellowship, we offer a combined fellowship experience that integrates both adult and pediatric infectious disease training. Applicants interested in pursuing a combined fellowship are encouraged to apply.

For more information on our program, please contact Lauren Fodor, program coordinator.

Weekly pediatric infectious diseases fellowship didactics schedule showing daily conferences and rounds across a four-week rotation.

Corewell Health in West Michigan provides a comprehensive and very competitive benefits package for our residents, staff, and their families. In addition, our program provides educational monies to support your ongoing education. Download our salary and benefits document to learn more.

From the program director

Welcome and thank you for showing interest in our program!

The Corewell Health Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital/Michigan State University Pediatric Infectious Diseases Fellowship in Grand Rapids, Michigan is a 3-year fellowship that accepts one to two new fellows each year. Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital is a 242-bed, (including a 108-bed NICU, 24-bed PICU, and 6-bed PCICU), freestanding tertiary care center that provides pediatric care for the entire West Michigan region. The hospital provides subspecialty care in over 50 pediatric areas, and we have fellowship programs in PICU, pediatric hospitalist medicine, pediatric cardiology, pediatric hematology-oncology, pediatric palliative care, pediatric neurology and pediatric pulmonology. The hospital cares for nearly 8,000 inpatients and 95,000 ambulatory patients annually.

Our fellowship program strives to prepare our fellows for the wide breadth of opportunities in pediatric infectious diseases. We have a robust inpatient service that consults on all areas of the hospital including PICU, cardiac ICU, NICU, BMT, emergency department, and solid organ transplant (kidney and heart). We also have an outpatient clinic, which provides care for both new consults as well as hospital follow-up, that serves the West Michigan region and parts of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. In addition to inpatient follow-up visits, we evaluate patients for fevers, immune deficiencies, and recurrent or difficult-to-treat infections; we also manage patients with more chronic infections such as HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C. The Antimicrobial Stewardship Service reviews antibiotic prescribing in both the inpatient and outpatient settings, and we have a dedicated pediatric infectious diseases pharmacist who is an integral part of our team. We are also responsible for clinical oversight of the infection prevention program for our hospital. Our affiliation with Michigan State University College of Human Medicine and the Van Andel Research provides access to a wide array of investigators for potential research projects.

Thank you for learning about our program and considering us for your fellowship training. Please contact our program if you have any questions.

Sincerely,
Lukman Abdurrahim, MD
Program director, Corewell Health – Grand Rapids/Michigan State University Pediatric Infectious Diseases Fellowship